[ninjames]

I wasn't sure where to post this exactly. I've got my big headphone setups, I have some very nice Creative speakers that I'm into for my office where we mostly listen to music and play games and what not. But when the fiancee and I retire to the bedroom, there's usually an hour or so of messing around on phones, playing 3DS and ahem ... other ... activities and we'd like some musical accompanyment. We don't have a TV or a computer in that room and we'd rather not tie up our laptop.
 
I have a 32GB card. I was wondering if a reasonable setup would be a Sansa Clip+ plugged into a cheap simple 2.0 set of speakers to listen to a little music before bedtime. I'm trying to accomplish this for under $100 and one important note is that I don't want TOO much stuff in there. Not a lot of room in that room. I was first looking for like a stereo/boombox with USB input for my external hard drive but I couldn't find anything. I don't want to tie up my phone with playing duties, either.
 
I'd love some thoughts on this!

 

[danielghofrani]

a perhaps unpopular opinion coming from a person who spent a sizeable chunk of money in a futile pursuit of sonic bliss:
 
stop worrying about what other people say or think. plug your device to the speaker, see if YOU enjoy the sound. 
don't ask for other people to tell you what is or isn't a decent setup. 

 

[ninjames]

Uh .. I'm posting here because I respect the opinions of people here. I've been coming here for years, have sunk far too much money into this habit because of this site and wouldn't have it any other way.
 
It's weird that you tell me to "plug your device to the speaker, see if YOU enjoy the sound," given that I'm asking this before I buy something. It's more a question of whether or not there's any foreseeable issues rather than asking if the sound quality will be fine. I know the Clip+ is a quality player and I know the quality I'd get out of the speakers. I don't appreciate the last bit of your post and feel that you're lotting me in with some other group of people. Your intentions seem misdirected, in other words.
 
The point of this topic was 1. To see if other people have done this, see if there's any ease of use issues, reliability issues, etc and 2. To see if other people have found simpler/more elegant/better solutions in the same price range. It has nothing to do with "sonic bliss." I already have that with my HE-400s :]
 
But thanks for your concern regardless.

 

[TrollDragon]

Wow what a bizarre thread...
 
2 posts in and you don't appreciate an answer someone has taken the time to stop by and give??
 

 

[DrewWaits]

I do it every day. It sounds by and large better than laptop speakers and a laptop as a source, so I would say that its perfectly fine. Marvin Gaye is going to sound like Marvin Gaye when it comes time for the "other activities." It'll sound fine.

 

[ninjames]

  Wow what a bizarre thread...
 
2 posts in and you don't appreciate an answer someone has taken the time to stop by and give??
 

He didn't answer anything. He basically told me to not ask questions. He's essentially telling me not to use Head-Fi. It was unsolicited advice on a topic that wasn't discussed. I'm an adult and can think for myself -- I wasn't asking you guys to build me a $3000 setup, I was asking if what I thought was a simple solution was as simple as I thought it was pretty much, and this guy came in and treated it as though I was one of hundreds of others asking fruitless advice in a fruitless pursuit as "sonic bliss," which is weird because I literally stated in my first post that I wasn't after anything fancy.
 
What's bizarre is his response.

 

[ninjames]

  I do it every day. It sounds by and large better than laptop speakers and a laptop as a source, so I would say that its perfectly fine. Marvin Gaye is going to sound like Marvin Gaye when it comes time for the "other activities." It'll sound fine.

:] Good to know. Is it true that the Clip+ can only handle up to 32GB cards or ...?

 

[TrollDragon]

So what you want to know is if the Clip+ and a pair of cheap speakers is good enough for your rutting session?
 
Does it really matter, anything playing music should suffice no?

 

[DrewWaits]

  :] Good to know. Is it true that the Clip+ can only handle up to 32GB cards or ...?

Install rockbox firmware on it. It'll take up to 128gb supposedly after that point. Makes the thing load 2x faster. And has much more bells and whistles than the Sansa firmware, and from my experiences less hanging up and freezes. Here's the rockbox sansa zip pages.
 
If the installer doesn't work, manually installing the firmware is a 10 minute affair. Look into it.

 

[ninjames]

  So what you want to know is if the Clip+ and a pair of cheap speakers is good enough for your rutting session?
 
Does it really matter, anything playing music should suffice no?

No ... that's not really what I was asking. Sure, it's part of it, but that was more a little joke. I described above what it is I'm looking for and why I'm posting here. Mostly looking to see if people have used this setup, if there's any issues I might be missing, or if there's any other, more elegant solutions to the ease of listening in bedroom situation. As I mentioned in my first post, my first instinct was to find something that could plug into my external hard drive, but that I didn't want a lot of equipment -- like a TV and computer or laptop with which to interface with and take up space. So "anything playing music" doesn't really cover the whole situation because I'm looking for, at the bare minimum, something that can handle a music collection of a certain size and something that is at least the size and fidelity of decent computer speakers. 
 
I don't know, I feel like I was very clear and very polite with what I was asking. I don't get why that inconveniences you so much.

 

[ninjames]

  Install rockbox firmware on it. It'll take up to 128gb supposedly after that point. Makes the thing load 2x faster. And has much more bells and whistles than the Sansa firmware, and from my experiences less hanging up and freezes. Here's the rockbox sansa zip pages.
 
If the installer doesn't work, manually installing the firmware is a 10 minute affair. Look into it.

Is there any consensus on which model is the most stable to run Rockbox at this point?

 

[TrollDragon]

Not at all...
 
I use this as a portable for when I need to drop some tunes somewhere, just jack the Clip+ into it and you are good to go.

 

[TrollDragon]

  Is there any consensus on which model is the most stable to run Rockbox at this point?

Clip or Clip+

 

[DrewWaits]

  Is there any consensus on which model is the most stable to run Rockbox at this point?

I use the Clip+. For the record, if you don't already have one, and the color you want (if that matters to you) is more expensive than the other colors on Amazon. Call Amazon and you can be credited for the difference. I hope this helps

 

[ninjames]

So looks like I'm at about $70 for the Clip, the speakers and a bigger SD card if i don't watch for sales. Sounds good to me! Now to build me a platform/dock out of Legos :]